


The Day Laika Came Back

by Lwoorl



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Super Sons (Comics), Superman (Comics), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Grown up jon, Light Angst, light fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-16 03:58:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18683683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lwoorl/pseuds/Lwoorl
Summary: He's shorter than Jon remembers and he also got a bit wrong the length of the hair, but the costume, that's exactly as he pictured it in his mind all these years, from the boots to the cape to the utility belt, he got it all right.Damian has his eyes very open just like Jon, he can notice it even with the mask, and suddenly he really wishes he could take it off, to see his eyes. He can't remember if they were green or blue.OrJon Kent comes back from space, years older and unable to believe he made it home. But coming back to the life he left won't go as smoothly as he wished it did.





	The Day Laika Came Back

**Author's Note:**

> So I really disliked the whole 'Jon came back as an adult' thing, but if I've learned anything in this life is that you gotta turn your loses into wins. I mean, if life gives you [terrible emotional pain] you got to make it [a literary experience] am I right or am I right? 😤

Jon can't help it, he has to stare. Everything is so new and nostalgic at the same time, like a dream he's had every single night for years and years and only now can clearly remember. It doesn't feel real, the trees, the sky, as if someone took the string of memories he barely could hold, those precious, faded images he was starting to doubt if ever even happened and knitted a world out of it, colorful and lovely and _solid._ The final sentences from a poem he could barely recall, suddenly coming together into something he can _hold._

It's too good to be true and it makes the back of his neck ache, hurt and burn with that sense of dread crawling all over his shoulders, like subconsciously he knows any moment now the universe will pull him by the hair and throw him back into the darkness of space like a rag doll, like it all will dissolve if he so much as reaches to pick up a flower and he will be forced to admit what he's been fearing for a long time now, that this never existed and the infinite void and the rocky prison is his only real place, that he appeared there and will roam there and will die there and all there is is there and there and there and nothing else than there and all those memories he holds so dear are just a bad joke, a carrot dangling in front of a horse to keep it walking; A plastic carrot.

But right now, he isn't there. He's here. And it's real and true and alive and he can't help but to look at everything with very round wide eyes like a baby who was just born. Drinking all around him like a man who's been in the desert a decade and a half and will die if he doesn't drink all the water in the world.

It happens all too quickly, the arrival, the fighting, confusion, questions, answers, kind words, harsh words, words, words, words all around, all in English, not kryptonian or other alien language but his mom's tongue. He keeps it together through all that and puts a brave face on, and then when no one but his parents are watching and it's all over he cries on his dad's shoulder and his mom's arms are around him and Jon shakes and chokes and _laughs._

Time passes, seconds, hours, it's not even been four days when a lot of people congregate around him. They ask more questions and he gives more answers and they demand proofs and tests and argue and discuss and through all that he can't help but to pass his eyes over their faces and almost gasp when he sees anything vaguely familiar. Dad's friends, dad's coworkers, that one's wonder woman, that one's a green lantern, that one's this, this one's that, that, those, these, and then his eyes rest on someone he thought he would never see again and if he thought his eyes couldn't widen more, well, he was wrong.

He's shorter than Jon remembers and he also got a bit wrong the length of the hair, but the costume, that's _exactly_ as he pictured it in his mind all these years, from the boots to the cape to the utility belt, he got it all right.

Damian has his eyes very open just like Jon, he can notice it even with the mask, and suddenly he really wishes he could take it off, to see his eyes. He can't remember if they were green or blue.

He's stuck there, being hit once again with the amazing, ecstatic _thisisrealimherenotthere_ feeling, just going over his friend’s features, burning the image in his mind, and then Damian bites his lips and looks away like someone slapped him and it comes crashing down.

 

_...Ah._

 

His dad will always be his dad, and his mom his mom, but he never... Well, he did, but not really, not seriously, he never… Actually thought how it would be for everything else.

Because, well, it makes sense, he's… He isn't the same as when he left, he took too long coming back and now. And- And probably if he had taken one or two, maybe even three years that wouldn't be much of a difference, maybe, but he's… He probably doesn't look at all like his younger self.

And… It hasn't been that long here. And now he thinks about what it must be like, what it would be like for him as a kid, and he realizes a lot of people probably won't see him as himself. Won't… It will be more like this eleven years old just dissipated in thin air and a random _adult_ that just so happens to share his name appeared in his place and those two only have the most tiniest of connections and that one time when he met that older version of Damian and himself he didn't actually think of them as _them_ , did he? Not as…

He keeps looking at the ground for the rest of the Justice League meeting, and when everyone starts to leave he doesn't notice Damian walking towards him until he speaks.

“Jon.”

He feels like jumping out of his own skin. He looks up, and then down, because Damian is _short_ and a _kid._ And Jon isn't, not anymore, and then Damian starts to open his mouth to say something but Jon doesn't want to hear it, he doesn't, because if there's another thing he remembers of his best friend is that he's _mean,_ good intentioned and warm, a really good person once you know him, but also oh so damn harsh, and he usually could deal with that and see the real meaning lurking under his words but right now he's tired, beaten and in the middle of a life crisis and can't, doesn't want to and _won't_ deal with it. So he bails. He just walks out and leaves him there, half a word out of his lips, he then goes back to his dad's side and absconds from the encounter.

Some time passes, he settles, and doesn't get in contact with anyone. Because it would hurt, right? He already proved he can't face Damian; Kathy would either cry or smile and act like it's fine, but he doubts she will see him as her friend and not a shadow of someone she knew; And he can't actually _tell_ any of his school friends... He's ashamed to admit, he doesn't really remember half of them.

So he stays in Metropolis and thinks what to do. He can't just retake school where he left it, he will most likely have to work on getting a GED. He can't hang out with people he knew, not now that he's so different. He doesn't think he will leave to do anything in space as long as he lives. And he doesn't feel like looking for a job. So he stays with his parents _dear Rao he missed them_ and throws himself into fighting crime, perfectly and completely, until it's almost like he doesn't have a civilian identity anymore. It makes for a good distraction, but there's the risk of running into people he knows.

He thinks Damian is doing it on porpoise, working near Metropolis, sometimes _in_ Metropolis, be it alone or with his Teen Titans team. He runs into him a couple of times, Damian's heart beats real fast when it happens, and then he always tries to force him into talking when the fight is over, but Jon just keeps looking to the ground and running away. It must make him look like a jerk, hell, he _feels_ like a jerk, but he can't face it, the _'you aren't my Jonathan Kent’_ he just knows is coming.

He's walking through the city, pulling at his civilian shirt as he runs an errand for his mom. _It feels like a costume,_ he wonders if normal clothes ever felt this fake as a kid, he can't remember.

Suddenly, there's a heartbeat in the crowd, a fast one he recognizes, moving right at him.

He tries to escape like the coward he is, but he can't show his powers in public, and he doesn't want to just walk over someone. Jon tries finding a place hidden from sight so he can take flight and disappear like always, but just as he's entering an alley there's a little hand firmly around his wrist and judging by how much force he's applying there's no real way he can get rid of Damian without tearing one of his fingers off.

It must look funny, the image of this young adult all but cornered by a tiny runt, looking like he's going to pass out as he avoids looking at his face. It doesn't feel funny, but, Jon thinks, it probably looks funny for someone else.

“Why are you ignoring me?!” Damian yells, his fingers hard enough against Jon's skin that his nails turn white. “No, not only ignoring! Why are you _avoiding_ me?!”

The accusation makes Jon flinch because, well, because it's completely true. He forces himself to look at Damian's face. His eyes are teal, so he was half right.

“Why do you think?” Is all he can say. Because really, it should be obvious, right? He isn't the same person, barely remembers who he used to be. If he met a younger version of himself today, Jon's afraid he couldn't prove him they're the same person.

The moment they talk for more than ten seconds Damian will realize he isn't who he remembers and will lose all interest in him, maybe will even blame him for his loss, like he personally murdered the kid to occupy his place. No one shows it, but they're just thinking of him as a bad copy, aren't they?

“Tt.” Damian's jaw tenses and his heartbeat skips a beat. “Of course.” He frowns really hard and then lets Jon's wrist go. He doesn't waste much time into flying away.

He doesn't see him for a while. Damian stops invading his city and he doesn't even hear of Robin for two or three months. Jon tries not to feel sad about it, but truth is the attention felt nice.

Around four months later there's an alien invasion. The whole league joins to fight it and Jon helps too.

He's fighting in the front lines, punching alien after alien after alien, when he hears a familiar scream and turns his head right on time to see Robin get hit and fall to the ground. The one who attacked has their weapon pointed at him.

Jon is there in less than a second, his eyes red as he stands between Damian and the other guy. Jon isn't sure why, maybe it's because he just recovered all this life and is still half expecting to lose it, maybe it's because he hasn't had someone he cares about actually being in danger in forever, or maybe realizing he's the older one now is getting to him more than he first thought, but there's just this surge of _protectiveness_ running through his veins that builds up and comes out in a _“Don't touch him!”_ That resembles more an animalistic growl than human speech.

It's over quickly, a leap and a well aimed hit is all it takes. He's next to Damian before he even realizes. He offers to help him stand up but Damian slaps his hand away.

“I don't need your help, don't treat me like a kid.”

“Stop being so fucking stubborn, you could have died!” Damian's heart jumps at that, for a moment Jon doesn't know why, and then realized it's because he isn't used to hearing him _swear._

The feelings of the last couple months come back but he pushes that aside, the middle of a war zone is _not_ the time to worry about his interpersonal drama.

Damian tries to get up and then trips, Jon's there to catch him and then looks what's the problem with his X-RAY vision. He's got a broken leg, a bruised rib and some injuries on the left arm. He probably won't be able to walk unassisted right away.

“Here, let me…” He moves to pick him up and Robin, surprisingly, doesn't put up any resistance. Jon doesn't even need to use more than one arm to fit him, Damian's so damn _tiny._

“Put me down.”

“No.”

He looks around. The battle's almost over, but there's still people fighting and shots firing up nearby. Jon trusts the others to hold up without him for a while and starts flying towards safety.

“Just let me down, I can wait until Father comes for me.”

“Yeah, no. I'm not taking any risks.”

“You shouldn't be wasting time with this, you and Superman are our biggest hitters.”

“You're important too.”

“...Why?”

The word comes soft and broken, and it makes Jon pause mid air. He looks down, at the boy in his arms. Damian isn't looking at him as he holds a handful of his red cape.

“Because you're my best friend.” The words come easier than he would have thought, like they were just waiting to leave his mouth. Damian lets go of the fabric and then looks at him, his face a mirror of the expression he had when Jon just came back.

“But I thought…” He trails off. Jon resumes moving and after a while Damian speaks again, barely a whisper “Then why have you been avoiding me? I… Thought you didn't want to see me.”

“I guess that's a normal conclusion to get to.” He mutters, because, well, it is. Why is he so damn clumsy with people? Sometimes it's as if his mere existence was hurting those around him. “But, no, that's not why.”

“Then _why?!”_

This is the point on the conversation that Jon would chicken out and disappear, but he can't do that while carrying the person he's talking to. So he takes a deep breath and conjures all the guts he can get. “I didn't think you would like the person I'm now.”

A beat of silence, a pang of anxiety, and then “You're really an idiot if you thought that.”

Jon laughs, there's no other answer he can give to that, he laughs and ever so slightly holds Damian a bit closer. They stay in silence the rest of the trip, and soon he's leaving his friend at the safe edge of the battle field.

He starts turning around, ready to go back, when he feels those little fingers around his arm.

“Jon.” Damian's voice is calm and steady, but his heart is going fast and filled with adrenaline. “You haven't changed at all.”

It's the first time Jon's heard that. It's been months since he made it home, and it's the first time he hears that sentence. Those words go to stab him right on the chest, and he has to look away and bring a hand to his face to clean the tears that are peeking from his eyes.

“Yeah.” He nods, not sure what he's agreeing to. Damian smiles and his fingers release him. “After this… Can we hang out?”

“Do you really need to ask?!” Damian huffs, and then, softer. “We have a lot of catch up to do.”

“You have _no_ idea.” He laughs again, Jon thinks this is the most he's laughed ever since that reunion with his parents.

As he leaves to re-enter the battle, he hears behind him a “Come to the manor later, we can play video games and you can see Titus and Alfred again!” He stops just long enough to wave, and then flies into the war zone.

Jon thinks, for the first time in a long while... That things are going to work out just fine.

 

**Author's Note:**

> If enough people seems to like this I might write more stuff on the whole adult Jon thing, maybe something from Damian's POV, idk.
> 
> As always please remember to comment!!!! You got no idea how much it means to me!!! Long comments, short comments, or just a happy face are all great!!!! 💕💕💕


End file.
